


Family You Choose

by CSIGurlie07



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 22:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11022981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSIGurlie07/pseuds/CSIGurlie07
Summary: Based on a tumblr post. Lex comes for Lena. The Superfam has other ideas.





	Family You Choose

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this tumblr post: https://iamaluthor.tumblr.com/post/160357338495/remember-this-scene-in-buffy-the-vampire-slayer

Lena notices the moment the men enter the bar. Part of it is her heightened senses, which have remained on alert since the moment she learned of Lex’s escape from prison. But it’s also the way the entire mood shifts–this place is a safe haven for aliens and outcasts, but everyone recognizes the menace rolling off the three newcomers.

“Maggie,” she says in a low voice, unnecessarily.

“I see them.” Maggie reaches for her service weapon. “James…”

From the corner of her eye, Lena catches a glimpse of James reaching for his watch, before the sound of multiple guns cocking behind them makes them all freeze in place.

“Interesting hideout you chose, Lena.”

No matter how much Lena has tried to prepare herself for it, Lex’s voice makes her breath catch in her throat. She turns, slowly, and sees Lex emerge from behind the line of weapons pointed at them.

“Who would think to find a Luthor here, of all places.”

While the bar’s patrons growl at the insult in his tone, but Lex has eyes only for her. He smirks. “You should have stayed in tonight. Anyone care to guess how many of you will have to die before she agrees to come with me?”

The guns trained on them swivel to target aliens instead. Lena’s heart lodges high in her throat. “Don’t,” she chokes out. “You don’t need to hurt anyone. I’ll come with you.”

Lex beams, and for a moment she can almost imagine it’s the last time she saw him before his arrest, after her graduation from grad school. That he’s standing there waiting to receive her with open arms, cap, gown, and all. But there’s a darkness in the smile, a cruelty that makes her stomach twist in fear. She takes a single, shaking step towards him.

“She’s not going anywhere.” James steps between her and Lex, obscuring her sight of her brother and the hard grin turning her stomach.

“James…” It’s little more than a whisper. She feels dwarfed by him, even when Maggie grabs her wrist and pulls her back, away from nearest goons shifting as though they’re going snatch her where she stands.

“Jimmy,” Lex greets brightly. “Can’t say I’m surprised to see you’ve made the move to National City. Still devoted to the Supers… Though I have to admit this one is cuter than the one in Metropolis.”

“I’m devoted to all my friends,” James says, not rising to Lex’s bait. “Including Lena. You’re not taking her.”

“I have no desire to kill a human tonight,” Lex warns. His eyes slide to Lena. “But I will.”

Lena grits her teeth and pulls away from Maggie. She steps past James, only to pause when he throws an arm in her way, turning to catch her gaze. “You don’t have to do this.”

She glances around the bar, and knows that she does. “There are a lot of people here, ” she tells him in a low voice. “A lot of lives. If this keeps them safe… I don’t see an alternative.”

“I do.” Maggie comes to stand on her other side, chin high. Lena feels Winn come up to stand behind her, taking her hand. His palm is damp, but steady. Lena grips it tightly, borrowing strength.

“You brought a lot of guns with you, Luthor,” Maggie continues, “but we still outnumber you. And you have no idea how many of us are bulletproof.”

Noise ripples through the crowd, as aliens widen their stances and lengthen claws, and spines, and teeth. Lex’s men grip their weapons that much tighter. As the aliens realize they have the upper hand, the humans standing against them realize they never had it to begin with, guns or no.

Lex finds her gaze over James’ arm. “When this is over, remember that I was the one who offered to end it without bloodshed.”

Aliens roar and surge forward as Lex shouts “Kill them all!”

The bar explodes into violence. Maggie shoves Lena back into Winn, who curls his body around her and covers her head with his hand while ducking them both towards an upturned table.

Hands grab Lena from behind, yanking her out of Winn’s grip. A fist slams into Winn’s face when he turns back to help her and he goes down between surging legs and bodies wrestling to the floor as humans and aliens fight for their lives.

“WINN!!” Lena lunges for him, but her captor slams her against the wall hard enough to see stars. His hand clamps around her throat, and thoughts of Winn, of Supergirl, of James and Maggie and aliens evaporate. Her awareness narrows to herself and the hand strangling the life out of her.

She scrambles for a soft spot–her fingernails jab deep into nail beds, into the tender flesh inside his wrist, but he doesn’t seem to even feel it. Lena reaches for his eyes, his ears, anything, but his reach is longer, and she swipes at only air.

Just as black spots start dancing in her vision, Lena sees him remove something from his pocket, the shape blurry and indistinct. A needle jabs into her shoulder with bruising force, and then the hand is gone. Lena staggers, nearly losing her balance as giant, heaving coughs wrack her body.

Her vision clears to the sight of Winn holding the splintered remains of the chair he’d slammed into her assailant’s back. Or maybe his head, because the large man is down and unmoving. Lena chokes and sputters for breath, and before she can get it back the room tilts sharply around her. Her limbs are suddenly heavy, and when she stumbles this time it’s not her balance but her knees suddenly incapable of holding her weight.

Winn catches her, and drags her towards the upturned table once more. He says something, but it’s muddled in Lena’s ears as she struggles to keep moving, keep her eyes open, to not succumb to whatever courses through her veins. It’s a fight she can’t win.

Lena blinks, and doesn’t have the strength to open them again.  _This is dying,_  she thinks. Winn cradles her against his chest, one hand clamped around her wrist and the other bracing her head. She can almost make out what he’s saying as the world fades out around her.

“Supergirl’s on her way… it’s going to be okay… I’m right here…”

* * *

When Lena can next open her eyes, she’s not on the floor anymore. She’s in a bed, something is beeping and bodies dot the infirmary around her.

Kara notices her awake first. “Lena?” She straightens in her chair. At the sound of her voice, everyone else perks up too. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re at the DEO. You’re safe.”

Lena blinks, and suddenly her eyes feel like they’re burning. “Who died?” Kara’s brow furrows in confusion. “At the bar, did Lex… did anyone die?”

Alex Danvers fields the question, her voice as gentle as Lena’s ever heard it. “No,” she says. “Lot of injuries, but only a few were major, and they’re going to pull through just fine.”

The burning in Lena’s eyes resolve into tears that spill from her lashes, and a sob bursts from her before she can lift a trembling hand to cover her mouth. Relief and guilt twist together in her chest, and she pulls one ragged breath after another.

“I’m sorry,” she croaks. “I’m so, so sorry.” But she has nothing to apologize for except bruises and their worrying while waiting for her to wake up.

A hand grasps hers, pulling her attention to Winn. One side of his face is mostly bruise, but his eyes are full of compassion. She remembers the sound of his voice, the gentle hold he’d kept on her as she drifted off into what she’d thought was death.

“Thank you,” she breathes. Winn offers a watery smile. “Thank you.” Her eyes pass from Winn to James, to Maggie. “All of you.”

James smiles, and Maggie’s eyes crinkle as her cheeks pull into a dimpled grin. “That’s what family’s for,” she returns simply.

Lena wants to say more, to tell them that it isn’t that simple. That they say family like its the most natural thing in the world, when her own blood is the one hunting her. But her eyes are slamming again, and her fingers instinctively tighten on Winn’s.

“You’re still working through some of the sedative,” Alex explains to her. “It’s best to sleep it off, so just relax, okay?”

Lena doesn’t have much of a choice. Her eyes slip shut, but her panic abates when she feels Kara’s hand slip into hers. Then more hands settle on her left ankle, her right knee. Maggie. James.

“You’re safe.”


End file.
